God Gives The Increase In Arusha...

Hello Fellow-Workers,

Our neighbor Katherine was baptized into Christ! If we understood correctly, she had previously studied with Jacob Jensen and Stephanie Stafford (many months ago) before studying with me during the past 5 weeks. We are thankful for the good foundation of knowledge that was laid before my studies with her. The titles of our lessons were "Seeking God,", "Finding God," "Jesus---The Way, The Truth and The Life" (2 lessons) and "Jesus---The Way to the Church." We never asked her if she wanted to be baptized...only presented her with the Truth. It is a thrill to study with "spiritually hungry" people and be a part of the TZ 2000 Mission Work.

The new Christian, Therasia and Trina met to discuss which topics she would like to study. She believes the Bible IS the Word of God but is curious as to how we have it. Trina plans to use the book "How Do You Know the Bible is From God" by Kyle Butt, M.A. as the basis for our study. We very excited and plan to invite other new Christians. Therasia lives with her husband, Peter, and 1 year old daughter, in a very small, 2-room mud hut. Afterwards she showed us their small corn field, stating that if rain didn't come soon their efforts would be in vain. Last week, while Therasia and Peter were attending church services, someone brought their cow over to eat from their corn field. We told her not to let that discourage her from attending (Matthew 6:33).

To update you on Lembris and Rosemary (new Christians): Rosemary continues to be faithful despite family problems. Lembris has missed several services and needs our prayers. We will continue to study with them as long as they are willing. Thank you for allowing us to be here and spread the Good News.

Our monthly Child-Training class is scheduled for this Saturday and we hope the attendance remains high. These mothers are interested in knowing how to train their children to live godly so that future generations will walk in Truth. We feel humbled and privileged to teach this class…which also reminds us of our personal duty.

Some of the graduate students of ACSOP have begun to arrive. We busy finalizing things for the new incoming undergraduate class (presently twelve students) who will begin their studies on February 14th. Lindsey and Abigail will be taking the Genesis course (taught by their father) on Mondays and Wednesdays.

We are enjoying good health and very warm days with very little rain. When rain is scarce, we have to buy water ($28 for 2,000 liters or, when available, $50 for 10,000 liters). What we are mainly paying for is the fuel required to deliver it. This extra expense is irritating because we have already paid the yearly fee (required in advance) due to our being on the government water line. There is no refund for the absence of water...you pay but you don't always get what you pay for. When our landlord paid (quite a bit) to hook this house up to the government water line, it was in our agreement that our rent would be raised. Previously we just had to depend on rain water and we bought water every month. Now our rent cost is higher and we STILL have to buy water in the dry season. Stay tuned for next week when I harp on the electrical outages and the high cost of petrol to run the generator! All that aside, Tanzania is a great place to live and work!

On a very, very sad note, Matthew's physical therapist (Stephen) died recently due to drowning in the ocean. Stephen, about 30 years old, was married and had a newborn. His death as a non-Christian has broken my heart and has been a painful reminder that "today is the day of salvation.” TODAY, ask an unsaved person if he/she would like to study or simply invite them to services. Stephen was a great person...but now must suffer eternally. Oh, the regret of not being more diligent to share the Good News with him.